Paths We Cross
by I will be Sakura Haruno
Summary: The Hidden Leaf village is Sakura's home that she loves and cherishes, but that hasn't always been the case. She thought everything would keep going smoothly, but that comes to a halt now that she is feeling an odd connection with a mysterious red head from the Sand Village along with having to keep a past that she doesn't completely understand.
1. Chapter 1

_Dear Nisan,_

 _I have just been put on my first team and even went on a mission to the hidden mist village. My teammates are very interesting and I don't know what the deal is with my teacher, but I think I'm really going to love being a part of team seven. I'm finally going to get to show people what I can do. I miss you guys so much. How is everybody? I hope I can visit soon!_

 _Love,_

 _Sakura._

Sealing my scroll I sat back in my seat and looked at the clock.

'Shit I'm late' I thought to myself, quickly tucking the scroll into my pouch, grabbing my forehead protector, and running out of my apartment.

The streets of the leaf village were busy with many people looking through the market area outside of my apartment. The afternoon sun was shining down on all of the vendors as I quickly weaved my way through the crowd towards the bridge where I would begin my new journey with team seven.

As I got closer to the meeting place I could already hear the yelling from none other than Naruto Uzumaki, my overly excitable team mate.

"I could win a fight with you any day teme!" Yelled a beat red Naruto.

"In your dreams dope." Came a cool response from a raven haired boy who happened to be my other team mate Sasuke.

Naruto and Sasuke were an interesting pair and this banter was nothing unusual. It seems to have become a routine for both of them to bicker and push each other's limits in any way they could. Honestly I don't understand the satisfaction they get from arguing, but sometimes I have to admit that it puts a smile on my face.

"Sakura! Tell this jerk that I am way better than him!" Naruto ran up to me and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"Naruto for the millionth time, I am not getting involved in you and Sasuke's stupid competitions."

Naruto continued to whine saying how it wasn't stupid as I wiggled out of his grasp and straightened my shirt.

"Kakashi sensei is not here." I said leaning back on the railing of the bridge across from Sasuke.

"Does that surprise you?" Sasuke said with annoyed tone crossing his arms.

"Well no, but it doesn't hurt to hold onto hope right?"

"I guess." Came Sasuke's short reply.

"You were late too you know." Said Naruto taking a seat cross legged next to me, "what were you doing?"

"O nothing, just cleaning up a bit and I let the time slip my mind. Maybe Kakashi sensei is rubbing off on me."

"Ew Sakura if you let that happen you'll turn into a huge perv like him too!" Shouted Naruto.

"Is that anyway to talk about your teacher?"

Naruto jumped at the new voice that came with a puff of smoke.

When the smoke cleared there stood my grey haired, masked sensei Kakashi. Despite Kakashi's lateness and habit of reading porn whenever he got the chance, Kakashi was a very good teacher. He was very skilled, knowledgeable, and even though he doesn't try to show it I know he has a soft side to him.

"So I have decided to enter the three of you in the Chunin exams this year."

Hearing Kakashi say this Naruto jumped up quicker than lightning, "Really!?" He yelled in my ear.

Naruto's enthusiasm was something to behold, but I'd be lying if I said it didn't get on my last nerve sometimes. "Naruto I am sure he can hear you fine without yelling." I said smacking him on the back of the head.

Ignoring Naruto's whining about how I didn't have to hit him so hard Kakashi continued explaining that all three of us would have to be fully committed to the exams to be able to register.

The chunin exams were the next big step after becoming a genin. Becoming a chunin proved that a ninja was developing and becoming better every day. The higher rank, the tougher the exams would become and ninja from all different villages come to show their skills and hope to gain the title of a chunin.

"I will be entering the three of you tomorrow afternoon, so if any of you have second thoughts come and tell me straight away. That is all." With that last statement Kakashi disappeared with a puff.

Grinning with excitement Naruto jumped in the air shouting about becoming the next Hokage. Sasuke pushed himself from the railing of the bridge and began heading off.

"Hey Sasuke!" I called out to him, "Want to go get some food before heading home?"

Sasuke didn't even stop to look back and called out a no from over his shoulder.

"Your loss." I called back.

"I'll go with you Sakura!" Naruto said sheepishly.

Smirking I agreed and began to head towards the ramen shop, "Just no flirting ok."

"What me? Flirt? Nooooo." Naruto said rubbing the back of his head.

On the way to the food vender we ran into Naruto's little friend Konohamaru. He is the Third Hokage's grandson and in my opinion just like a more annoying, smaller version of Naruto. The two talked, well more like Konohamaru begged Naruto to play with him, and the next thing I know the little brat was looking at me with this weird face.

"What?" I asked him.

Suddenly his little eyes got real big like he had this big revelation and he turned to Naruto, "O I get it boss, this is your girlfriend right?"

It took me a second to comprehend what was just said and as it was sinking in Naruto's dumb ass was agreeing with the little shit.

"Naruto are you really stupid enough to agree with what he said in front of me?" I growled at him.

Realizing his stupid mistake Naruto put his hands up in a defensive pose stuttering out his apologies, but it was too late for apologies. I grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and pulled him into a punch that sent him flying threw the wooden fence that lined the pathway.

Konohamaru ran over to Naruto pulling him from the broken pieces of the fence and shattered pride. "It's ok boss she's ugly anyway, just look at her forehead."

This kid was just begging for me to put him in his place.

"What was that?" I asked with venom in my voice.

If the look on the pipsqueaks face was anything to go on, he was scared shitless.

"I'M SORRY!" He shouted taking off down the path making a sharp turn as I ran after him to ruff him up a bit.

When I came around the corner there was the brat on the ground with a boy in a loose black jumpsuit with a hood standing over him.

"Watch where you're going kid." The boy barked as he grabbed Konohamaru by the collar just as I had done with Naruto.

"Whoa, hey he didn't mean any harm, he was running from me and,"

"Kankuro, let the kid go." A girl dryly stated from behind the aggravated boy.

"O come on Temari I wanna have some fun after our long journey."

"Yeah ok, but you know better than that. Gaara will kill you if he finds out" The sandy blond girl said putting her hands on her hips.

This two where defiantly not from here. Looking them both over I noticed their forehead protectors had the symbol for the village hidden in the sand. They must have come here for the chunin exams. The boy, Kankuro, seemed a little bit odd with his attitude and purple face paint, whereas the girl, Temari, seemed very elegant yet strong.

"Don't worry he won't find out," Kankuro pulled a really large object off his back slamming it down to the ground on end. It almost looked like a cocoon with hair on top, but I highly doubt that is what it is.

As I took a breath in to reason with the hooded sand shinobi a rock went flying through the air hitting him in the head.

"Messing with a kid is pretty low down you know."

I looked up to see Sasuke sitting up in a tree, another rock in hand.

"Why you little," Kankuro started to say, but was stopped by a gruff voice from the same tree where Sasuke resided.

"Kankuro you are a decrease to our village."

There hanging upside down from a branch was a red headed boy with what looked like the kanji for love on his forehead. In a split second he disappeared and then reappeared down next you his two comrades with what looked like sand.

"Gaara, you see I was just," Stuttered a nervous Kankuro until he was stopped again by Gaara's merciless quite.

Looking to the ground Kankuro shoved Konohamaru towards Naruto who had recovered from my hit and stood watching the scene that played before us.

Sasuke quietly leaped from the tree landing right next to me, "What is your business here?"

"Yeah why are you jerks stocking around here?" Naruto yelled shielding an upset Konohamaru.

"Guys remember Kakashi said the chunin exams are coming up." I said staring at the trio.

Really I couldn't take my eyes off of the pale boy named Gaara. He was shorter and seemed younger than the other two, but just his presence held so much authority over Temari and Kankuro. His voice and aura around him held something that I couldn't put my finger on, but I felt like I was in a trance.

My thoughts were brought to a halt when Gaara's eyes caught mine. A second turned into an eternity that was only broken by Kankuro letting out a scoff.

"Good job pinky." He said with a smirk.

The nickname that was obviously inspired by my pink hair made me narrow my eyes at his mocking attitude.

"O is the kitten going to take her claws out?" He continued.

My fist balled up and I was about to take a step towards him to send him into next week if it wasn't for Sasuke grabbing my hand to stop me.

Shooting a glare at Sasuke I turned back to yell at the asshole that taunted me but stopped when I felt Gaara's eyes burrowing into me. Not really understanding what was going through the red head's mind I looked right back at him not breaking eye contact.

Noticing the weird interaction Sasuke took a step in front of me stating that we were done here, and grabbed my wrist to lead me back down the path we came from. As I was being pulled away I looked back over my shoulder to see that Gaara was still not taking his eyes off of me. Not thinking about it, I gave him a small curious smile before being pulled around the corner.

"Konohamaru are you ok? Did that jerk hurt you?" Naruto continued to ask the shaken up boy all kinds of questions as I couldn't get my mind off of what just happened.

Sasuke gave me weird glances from the corner of his eyes as he pretended to watch Naruto.

'Why was he looking at me like that?' I thought to myself, but decided that the whole situation was odd and let it go.

I turned to look at the sunset pushing everything to the back of my mind and remembered that I still had something to do.

"Hey guys I need to go, so I'll catch both of you later."

"Awe but Sakura we never got our food!" Complained a whining Naruto.

I grinned at him and promised that we would get food tomorrow and told him I would get food on the way back to my apartment. He reluctantly agreed and gave me a hug goodbye. As I waved I noted the curious look that Sasuke gave me as I headed across the village.

Reaching into my pouch I found the scroll that I had written before meeting up with everybody. It didn't take long to reach where I was headed. I headed out of the village gates and walked a little ways to this huge tree that no one could miss. Carefully I placed the scroll at the base of the tree and watched as the tree's bark reached out and grabbed it taking it away to the rightful recipient, and with a smile I headed back to the village to get some food and have some time to myself.


	2. Chapter 2

A knock on the door brought me away from my thoughts as I was getting ready for bed. Cracking open the door of my apartment slightly I was meet with the expressionless face of Sasuke.

"Sasuke? What can I do for you?" I asked opening the door for him.

Quickly walking into my apartment Sasuke silently strolled over to my couch as I locked the door.

"Ok, what's going on?"

Sasuke gave me a glare as I took a seat across from him, "What happened today?"

"You mean with the creepy hooded sandboy?"

"No, I mean with how you acted when the other one appeared."

"Sasuke I have no idea what you are talking about, Konohamaru was in trouble and,"

"Sakura, you just stood there ogling at him when he could have killed you."

"I really don't think that the situation was that intense."

Getting slightly irritated he shot me and ice cold look that seemed to ask me if I was stupid. "Did you not sense how powerful he was?"

"I mean yeah, but there are plenty of powerful ninja in this village."

"You shouldn't participate in the chunin exams."

Hearing that comment caught me so off guard I felt my checks turn slightly pink from surprise. Sasuke stood to leave, but I quickly stood and grabbed his shoulder to stop him. "And why do you say that?"

"You're too weak."

Feeling my blood begin to bubble over I took a step back from Sasuke and clenched my fist, "You have no idea what I can do."

"Well you weren't much help in the mist village, you're just going to get yourself killed."

With that, Sasuke left as quickly as he had come in.

It was no secret that everyone thought I was the weak link between the Uchiha prodigy and the powerful jinchuuriki Naruto, but they had no idea what I could do. No one has even given me a chance to show my talents, it's not my fault I'm stuck between two people who seem to have some divine destiny. I clenched my jaw in frustration, books from the shelves all around me began to topple to the floor. I sighed letting out a breath I didn't even know I was holding. I needed to stay calm, nothing good ever happens when I really let out my anger.

Picking up the books and putting them back in their place reminded me just why no one had seen what I can do. Since I was little I have always had this strange power that my family could never explain, it wasn't a power that most ninja had. I wasn't boiling over with strength and chakra, in fact what I could do didn't involve chakra at all. Because of the strangeness of my ability I was always told to hide it for my own safety, safety from others and myself.

Smiling to myself I remembered how my nisan would talk about how awful my tantrums were as a kid. Any anger or sadness would result in all kinds of chaos from things falling from walls to tornado like winds picking up around me and anything else with in the vicinity.

I decided to go ahead and begin preparing for bed, hopping getting a good night's rest would help me to sooth my irritation, but as I curled up in bed I seemed to only be able to stare at the ceiling in frustration at a situation that seemed to have no solution for now. I don't want to be some great ninja that everyone wants to be, but being pushed around as if there was no need for me didn't feel too hot either.

The next morning I quickly got ready for training. Thoughts of what Sasuke said last night darkened my mood but I pushed his words to the back of my mind. Passing through the streets I felt as if I was being watched, but everyone seemed to be minding their own business. Just as I was about to reach the bridge I was finally met with jade eyes. It was only for a second with in the moving bodies around me, but it wasn't hard to know where I had seen them. I had gazed into those eyes just the day before.

"Hey forehead!"

Jade was replaced with blue as Ino came bouncing towards me. She seemed to be in a very good mood and was dressed in an outfit that most definitely wasn't ninja attire.

"What are you wearing Pig?"

"Well I have a hot lunch date." She said with a smirk.

"Is that so? What about your Sasuke-kun?"

Ino's smirk turned into a dreamy daze at the thought of my teammate. "Sasuke will always be my number one, but you can't blame me for loving the attention that boys throw at me."

"I guess not." I replied with a laugh.

"O but I was wondering if you would like to have dinner with me and Hinata tonight. We figured that it would be nice to have a girl's night before all the Chunin Exam craziness begins."

I hadn't had the chance to see my friend Hinata in a while and the thought of getting to catch up with her and the pig put a smile on my face, "Sure that sounds wonderful."

"Yay! Well I don't want to be late so we will see you tonight," and with at Ino gave me a bone crushing hug and ran off to her date.

I turned to head to the bridge, but not without checking to see if my follower from before was still there, but he seemed to be gone. An involuntary sigh came from my lips as I walked. Why was he following me? Maybe he was just going the same way as me and noticed me but deep down I knew that wasn't the case, or maybe I didn't want that to be the case.

Kakashi arrived late as usual, Naruto pestered him about how a sensei should not be late and that he needed all the time to train to become Hokage, and then we all head out to the training grounds together. I made sure to stay away from Sasuke, but it seemed as if Sasuke was acting as if nothing had happened last night. It was hard to suppress the urge to show Sasuke how wrong he was about me, but I knew that it would do nothing but put me in a sticky situation. Plus Sasuke was my teammate, we needed to work together not against each other.

Training was just like any other day. We worked on chakra control and taijutsu, but any time I would slip up I felt as though Sasuke's eyes were bearing into my soul telling me I wasn't good enough. By the end of the session it almost felt as if I was going to snap and let every frustration strangle Sasuke to death. I found myself zoning out from Kakashi's lesson and focusing more on the betrayed feeling I felt welling up in my stomach.

"Sakura, what is going on?" I turned to look at Kakashi who had strolled up to Naruto and me.

Kakashi's voice pulled me from my thoughts. I gave him a quick smile apologizing for spacing out, "it was just hard to sleep last night with the thought of the chunin exams coming up so quickly."

Kakashi gave me a look that said he wasn't convinced. I glanced over at Sasuke, seeing the bored expression on his face made my thoughts from this morning creep back up. I bit my tongue as I felt my anger settle in my throat. Here I was pushing back my anger so that we could be a team, and it didn't seem like Sasuke even cared even the slightest bit that his words might have ruined our relationship as teammates. But then again I don't think he ever thought of me as a teammate, I was just someone in the way of him getting his precious revenge against his brother.

Making up my mind that I had every right to be angry at Sasuke I walked right up to him and gave him a sharp slap across the face.

"What the hell?" Sasuke growled at me.

It felt a rush as a small amount of frustration was released from that slap. "I should have done that last night."

I turned to leave, but was stopped by a very concerned looking Kakashi. "Sakura what has gotten into you?"

"Am I dismissed?" I chose not to look into my sensei's eye. He was like my father figure and I didn't need him trying to pry things out of me, and even though I held great respect for Kakashi a part of me was afraid he might agree with Sasuke. Kakashi has always tried his best to keep me safe on every mission to the point where sometimes I felt as though he had no faith in me either.

"Sakura you just slapped your team mate,"

"Yes and now I would like to leave, please. If you would like to know what is wrong with me why don't you ask the Uchiha, he is the one that caused this mess." It was a lot easier to direct their attention to Sasuke then risk having my own emotions bubbling over from an explanation.

Naruto took this as his que to ask what the Teme did to me, but I quickly told him that I didn't want to talk about it and looked back to Kakashi. The look on his face said he wasn't done with me but that if I left right now he would let it go for the time being. I took this opportunity by grabbing my bag and heading down the side of the stream that helped make one of the borders of our training grounds.

I didn't want to go into the town right now. The noise of the villagers that normally didn't bother me would drive me crazy right now, I felt on edge, so I headed to the end of the village and found a set under a tree right next to the wall that surrounded the leaf. I hated the secrets that I kept from team seven. Was I even apart of the team? None of them really knew who I was, and yet they don't suspect anything to be off about me. Sometimes I could barely think of the person I truly am. In all honestly I didn't really know who I was.

Every now and then I would find somewhere far from the village and think as hard as I could about my past. My memories never went past the age of six. It's almost like a wall was placed the day I met my Nisan. My nisan wasn't really my nisan, but he was the only family I ever had and his friends all took me in and raised me to be who I am today. I just wonder if one day, if I finally break that wall will I know who I am?

I glanced around and spread my chakera out to feel if anyone was around. When I didn't find anyone I turned my attention to the leaves that were sprayed across the ground. Slowly two of them swirled up into the air in a little dance. A small smile found its way onto my lips as I made the vibrant green leafs dance adding more into the mix. This was one of my favorite things to do as a child, making nature dance and sometimes joining the graceful free release. It helped me to believe in a future where one day I had no more secrets holding me down and I could soar up in the warmth of the sun.

"You were right."

The leaves floated to the ground and I found myself face to face with the same green eyes that I had seen in the streets. I froze in my spot. Where did he come from? There was no way he could have been here the whole time. Did he see what I was doing? The red head seemed to be looking into my soul, searching for something.

"I was right?" I asked breaking his concentration on whatever it was that he was doing.

"Not you." came his quick reply.

I glanced around and did a quick sweep of chakra to see who else had come with him, but there didn't seem to be anyone. A low snicker came from the boy, but there didn't seem to be any emotion within it. He seemed to be trying to size me up, like a predator with its prey.

His deep voice brought my eyes back to his as he asked me where I was from.

"I am from here, why would you ask such a stupid question?" The boy scowled at me and get a growl escape from deep in his chest. He moved closer and seemed to sniff the air around me. "Hey how bout you back off and,"

"How did you do that?"

Holding back the irritation from him cutting me off, I stood to head back to the village and decided not to reply.

"You weren't using any chakra. How?"

I kept walking, if I didn't look back maybe I could get out of here without anything weird happening. That thought was ripped away as my interrogator appeared right in front of my path in a swirl of sand.

"Where do you think you have gotten the authority to ask me about where I'm from and what I am doing in my personal time? If anything I should be asking you why you were following me around town today."

He seemed to study me and I begin to feel very uncomfortable under his gaze. All of the emotions that had been swirling in my head today were just about explode. His energy seemed to pry itself under my skin and all I could think about was wanting to get away. I wanted to be home, I wanted to be alone, and I wanted answers that I was never going to get.

I moved to bypass the sand nin that stood in front of me when sand shot up grabbing my ankles. As soon and the grains touched my skin it felt like everything that I held deep down ripped threw me. The sand crumbled and the body that was so close to me was thrown into a tree about 20 feet away. Shock seemed to paralyze Gaara as sand shielded him from the blow of the tree that was behind him.

I didn't know what to do, I didn't know what really happened, but my first instinct was to take off running towards the village.


	3. Chapter 3

Dinner with Ino was always an adventure. Ino was the type of girl that seemed to thrive off of the attention from boys, and it seemed there were always boys willing to give her attention. That being said, whenever Hinata and I would go out with Ino we always seemed to get a show. If there wasn't a boy who was throwing himself at the bleach blond, she herself would try to use her charm to attract any boy that would fuel her ego.

"Ino do you think maybe tonight it could just be the three of us?" Hinata asked softly.

"What do you mean? It is the three of us."

"I think what Hinata means, in her own sweet way, is stop winking at and inviting over any boy that walks by." I laughed as Ino glared at me from across the table.

"For your information forehead I do not invite any guy over, just the cute ones."

Hinata let out a soft laugh covering her mouth with her hand. I rolled my eyes but let a small smile settle on my lips.

Shoving a huge bite of chicken in her mouth Ino turned to our soft spoken friend, "So Hinata how is everything with Neji?"

I gave Ino a look of distaste as a bit of her food fell from her mouth to the table. Sometimes I wondered how Ino got her name, this was not one of those times. Turning to Hinata I noticed she was biting her lip, something she did often when she was uncomfortable, but with the subject that Ino brought up it wasn't hard to figure out that things might be a little ruff in her world. To put it simply Hinata's family had it's problems, problems that had been growing for centuries.

Hinata looked to the table avoiding eye contact. She took a deep breath to steady herself, something she had been working on with us. The more time Ino and I spent with Hinata the easier it became for her to open up.

"Well we have been talking more," she looked to us for reassurance that we were listening, "but we've had to be very discreet with the family. Father doesn't know that I have been training with him between our practises, but I think we are really starting to finally get to know each other." She smiled a bit to herself, "And it's all thanks to you Sakura."

I became friends with both Neji and Hinata separately, and it didn't take very long to see how divided their family was. It also wasn't hard to notice how the weight of their family really drug them both down in their own ways. I told both of them what I thought and eventually I got them to meet together at my apartment where they could talk without any family members looming over them. It wasn't easy but eventually they learned to open up a little to each other.

"I'm just glad you're finally getting comfortable around your friends." I gave Hinata a smile and she twiddled with her fingers as Ino began to loudly bost about how she was the best friend you could ever ask for. The night went on like this, with Ino making some outrageous comments and us talking about the upcoming chunin exams. I felt so carefree and relaxed, I hadn't felt this good for a while.

Then it hit me. There was less stress in my body, almost like I had let go of something, and I had. Well I had let go just a little bit when Gaara attacked me, why did he attack me? What did he want? What was he even doing following me around the village? Why was he talking to himself and how did he know I wasn't from here?

"I bet Sakura could drop some good words in for me." Ino turned to me with a grin.

Ino's voice stopped the spiral I was going down, "Sorry I was a bit zoned out, what am I doing?"

"I have a plan to finally go on a date with Sasuke! It all begins with you sliding my name into your conversations with him then,"

"Ino I hate to break it to you, but I'm not going to be any help with that anytime soon."

"What do you mean?"

I sighed and stabbed at the leftover food on my plate. I knew me and Sasuke's fight would come up, I was just hoping it wouldn't be brought up tonight. "Well Sasuke and I aren't really on the best talking terms right now."

"Did something happen?" Ino asked

I ran my tongue over my teeth and sighed, "Yeah we got into an argument and, well, he said just what I thought he thought of me. He doesn't think of me as his teammate, I'm more of a liability to him."

"Wait he said that?" Ino's voice seemed to over power the noise in the room which added to my discomfort on the subject.

"He said he thinks I shouldn't enter the chunin exams. Not that I think his saying that because he cares about me or some shit. It's almost like he gets off on making himself look like a pompous ass."

Ino leaned back in her seat, her energy seemed to drop for the first time to night, "Yeah he does seem to only think of himself."

"But you're not going to listen to him right?" Hinata asked

"Of course not, I'm not some little kid that Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke have to take care of. I'm a part of the team, but it feels like they don't think so."

"Well tomorrow will be the day you start changing that. You need to stand up for yourself and the Chunin Exams are the perfect way to do that. If they try to push you to the back knock them into place."

"I know Ino, it's just frustrating because Naruto and Sasuke aren't like Shikamaru and Choji. Shikamaru is too lazy to ever argue with you and Choji just happily follows you both with no problems. Naruto and Sasuke are so hard headed I don't know if they would even notice if I tried to be more in charge."

"You never know until you try." Hinata offered me a smile smile.

I gave Hinata a smile back, "Thanks, it means a lot that both of you believe in me. Tomorrow the new Sakura is going to tell team 7 that she's a force to be reckoned with!"

When tomorrow came I held on to the energy that Ino and Hinata gave me. I wanted to make a change. Just because I have to stay in control doesn't mean I have to let myself be thrown on the back burner. There had to be some middle ground where I could actually be a part of this team and keep my secrets too.

As I came to the building where the first part of the chunin exams began I could see Sasuke had already arrived, but it didn't seem like Naruto was here yet. I took a deep breath to steady myself. Sasuke was not going to drag me down, this is my second chance to really show my team that I am not someone to push around.

"Is Naruto not here yet?"

Sasuke glanced at me for a second before answering with a no and going right back to his own little world. In all honesty I didn't mind that at all. I walked to a bench that faced the entrance of the building. There were already teams walking in to get settled for the first part of the exams. It was surprising to see how many visiting ninja there were participating. I made eye contact with Neji as he arrived with his team. I didn't really know his teammates, I knew the girl's name was Tenten but the name of the boy in the green jumpsuit escaped me. I waved to Neji as they walked in.

"Are you guys ready?!" Naruto came running down the street, pure joy spread across his face.

I couldn't help but smile at his excitement, Sasuke however didn't seem to happy with Naruto's loudness.

As I stood Naruto crashed into me with a hug, "Today is another huge step for me becoming Hokage!"

I giggled a bit, "Naruto calm down a bit, I'm glad you're excited but you can't be acting like a mad man."

"I know." Naruto gave me a grin before Sasuke gave us a sigh of disapproval and started his way to the door.

"Why do you have a stick up your ass Teme?" Naruto and I followed Sasuke inside as Naruto pestred Sasuke about his pissy attitude.

We hadn't made it halfway to the stairs before we were stopped by Neji's teammate in the green jumpsuit.

"Hey I just wanted to introduce myself, my name is Rock Lee." He turned to me and bowed. "Neji told me your name is Sakura and I wanted to say that you are the most beautiful girl I have ever seen."

I didn't really know what to say. As kind as his gesture was, this was probably one of the most awkward interactions I had ever had, "Um, thank you."

"Please be my girlfriend, I will protect you with my life."

Ok now it went from kinda sorta sweet to creepy real fast, "O um that's flattering, but I'm not really looking to date anyone right now."

"Yeah," Naruto slid between me and Lee, "Plus if she was going to date anyone it would be me."

I hit Naruto over the head, "Think again."

"Lee," Neji approached our little group, "What are you doing?"

"I was just telling Sakura-san about her youthful beauty." Lee's eyes seemed to sparkle with his words.

Tenten smacked Lee over the head, just like I had done with Naruto, "Lee you don't just walk up to a girl you've just meet and talk about her 'youthful beauty.'"

Lee rubbed the back of his head and dropped to his knees apologizing to me. Tenten grabbed Lee by the ear and started lecturing him about how you are and are not supposed to talk to a girl. Neji took this opportunity to greet me with a smile and small hug.

"It's good to see you Sakura-san"

Naruto turned his attention to me and Neji, "Who is this guy Sakura?"

"Naruto this is Neji, his Hinata's cousin. We used to study together when I was younger."

"I don't remember him in our class."

"Neji is a year a head of us. I used to live fairly close by to him. We ran into each other at the library a lot and became friends pretty quickly."

Neji was my first friend I ever made moving to this village. I always had a bit of a hard time making friends with the other kids in the village, but Neji was different. I noticed that he came to the library I went to often and I guess he noticed me as well because one day he asked me about a book I was reading. From then on we would talk to each other about what books we were reading. It wasn't too long until we realized that we were both going to the academy and we begin training together whenever we had free time.

Sasuke seemed to be agitated by our talking and started making his way to the stairs. "We need to get going."

The five of us followed Sasuke to the third floor. As we stepped away from the stairs a strange feeling jolted up my spine. I looked around the hallway that we had entered but it seemed like the doors were off. The numbers on the doors seemed to sway on their green background making me feel uneasy. Shouting brought my attention to an angry group of ninja who were shouting at two much older men blocking their way.

"All of you are idiots if you want to take these exams." One of the men crossed his arms with a smirk.

"Stop being jerks and let us in!" The crowd seemed to only get angrier with the man's statement.

Sasuke effortlessly shoved his way to the front of the group, "Why don't you just drop the act and release the genjutsu that you have on the second floor so we can get to the third floor?"

The older men snorted, "Well look at this guy. Someone finally noticed."

The crowd's energy seemed to drop as the genjutsu dissipated changing all of the signs on the doors to their correct numbers. The uneasiness that had settled in my stomach disappeared as soon as the wrong numbers did.

"It wasn't that hard. I bet Sakura noticed it as soon as we stepped into the hallway."

I couldn't tell if Sasuke's statement was meant to be back handed, but after our fight I couldn't help but be irritated with his statement as he glanced back at me.

Everybody headed to the third floor for the first portion of the test. I wished Neji good luck as everybody was split up from their teams and given an assigned seat in a large lecture hall. I was given a seat in the very back of the room where I was able to see everyone who came into the room. Red caught my eye and I noticed Gaara enter the room with his teammates. On his way to his seat he noticed me but kept to his own business. A wave of relief briefly washed over me as he sat near the middle of the room with his back to me.

Once the room was completely filled, a large man with two very dark scars from his forehead to his cheek and from the other check to his chin stood and took his place in the front of the room. The room fell silent as his cold demeanor spread to all four corners of the room.

"My name is Ibiki Morino and I will be your instructor for the first test of the exams. Be quiet and pay attention as I explain how this is going to work. The first test is a written exam. We will not be testing you individually but as your three man cells. All of you will be given a ten point test and at the very end of the test all of your points will be added up as a team to determine if you pass or fail."

Ibiki motioned for his assistants to begin laying papers face down on the desks in front of us.

"Do not touch your papers until you are instructed to. Anyone caught flipping over their test before we have begun the test will be removed. Anyone caught cheating will be penalized and after 5 penalizations they will be disqualified with their teammates. Any team that has a team member to get all ten problems wrong will be disqualified."

I could see Naruto sitting down front of the room. His energy seemed to be sucked out of his body.

"You have one hour to complete your test. You may begin."

I flipped my paper over and dread sank into my chest. There was no way that Naruto knew any of these questions.


End file.
